New Delhi: The Centre has directed the Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) to reserve faculty positions for candidates belonging to SC, ST, OBC and economically weaker sections of the society.
The directive was issued after the matter was raised in Parliament on November 20.
Earlier, the Ministry of Human Resource and Development issued several advisories to the IIMs, but the management institutes avoided implementing the reservation policy citing a circular issued by the Department of Personnel and Training in the 1970s. The circular had reportedly said that reservation policy did not apply for technical institutes. IIMs maintained that the faculty positions in these institutes were technical in nature.
With the Ministry directive, IIMs will now have to adhere to the reservation policy, news reports have said. According to the Ministry, 90 per cent of the faculty positions, at present, are from general category.
On Wednesday, the Ministry said its order ‘supersedes’ all previous “orders/notifications/communication” sent in case of faculty reservation.
This means, 50 per cent of all teaching positions will have to be reserved for SC, ST and OBC candidates. IIMs might have to create additional positions to accommodate 10 per cent posts for candidates coming from the economically weaker sections. The Centre had made it clear that the 10 per cent EWS quota will not be carved out from the existing reservations for SC, ST and OBC.